Window-cleaning and sprinkling device.



C. H. FLODINE. WINDOW CLEANING AND SPRINKLING DEVICE.

APPUCATION FILED JAN. 8, I912- w Patented July 11, 1916.

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CARL H. FLODINE, or ci-rrcneo, ILLINOIS.

wnvnow-cnnnurne AND SPZBJNKLING DEVICE.

Application :filed January 8, 1912.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL FLomNn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in lVindow-Cleaning and Sprinkling Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a household im plement that can be used either as a window.

washer or, with slight adaptation, as a clothes or floor sprinkler, and it consists in an elongated, preferably cuneiform, receptacle of metal or suitable springy material,

, having minute perforations along the acute edge, which perforations are preferably covered with a strip of cloth when the device is used as a washer or cleaner, but are left free when it is employed as a sprinkler, suitable provision being made for filling'it with an appropriate cleansing or dampening fluid, as soap-suds or pure water, or even disinfectant.

To enable this device to perform all the essential operations of window-cleaning, a drying member or squeegee preferably made of a fairly thick sheet of rubber, somewhat resilient and pliable, yet sufficiently stiff to remove liquid from a surface that has just been cleaned, is hingingly mounted on the ends of the receptacle near its operative edge, so that it is normally folded up against the side of the reservoir or vessel, but can readily be turned into its operative position by being projected forward to overlap the liquid-emitting edge.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of a device embodying my invention, prepared for use as a sprinkler. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partly in section, showing the device covered with a cloth or fabric, for use as a window washer. Fig. 3 is a cross-section therethrough on the correspondingly numbered line in the preceding figure, and Fig. 41: is a fragmental sectional View of a portion of the device showing the different layers of fabric and sponge 0rv absorbent.

Referring now to said drawings: 1 is a receptacle of any suitable form, herein represented as cuneatic and elongated, having its long, acute edge 5 rounded and provided with minute perforations 6. The receptacle may be made of sheet metal or other equivalent material, advisably of a springy nature. Suitably located near the acute'ed'ge' and Specification of LettersiIPatent.

Patented July 11, 1916..

Serial No. 670,120.

at one end of the device is amouth 7 whereby it may be filled. A plug 8 which may be of cork, forms a stopper for this mouth.

As thus far described, the device may be filled with water and be used as a clothes sprinkler in laundry work, or for sprinkling floors preparatory to sweeping, or it may be charged with disinfecting or other fluid and employed to fumigate rooms or to give an agreeable odor to their atmosphere, a. pressure on itswalls facilitating the discharge of its contents, as in pocket oil-cans. When intended for use as a window cleaner, it will be filled with soap-suds or other cleansing fluid and the perforations in the acute edge willbe covered with astrip of cloth or fabric 9, a layer of sponge or absorbent material 10, is then placed over the Said cloth or fabric; .and is in turn enveloped with another layer of cloth or fabric 11, which incases the entire device, except the end walls 12 and 13, but this is merely a matter of convenience, the effect being local to the immediate neighborhood of the perforations.

The inner strip of fabric 9 serves to distribute uniformly along the absorbent layer 10 the liquid projected through the minute perforations 6. Absorbent layer 10 serves primarily to retain the liquid thus made immediately available, storing it in quantities suflicient to be supplied and applied efliciently according to the needs varying with the amount of dirt to be removed from different parts of the surfaces to be cleaned, more or less liquid being squeezed from the absorbent reservoir to the cleans ing layer proper 11, according to the greater or less force with which the receptacle is pressed against such surface, and to the rate of supply to the distributing layer 9, said rate depending 011 the pressure brought to bear on the springy sides of receptacle 4t.

Removably pivoted, adjacent to the acute edges of the end walls 12 and 13, of the receptacle is a drying member or squeegee 14, so arranged that the same may be folded back and not interfere with the washing or cleansing process as in Figs. 2 and 3, of the drawings, but may be swung into the drying position as indicated in Fig. 1 of the drawing, after the cleansing process has taken place and the cleaned surface made ready for drying.

When'it is desired to omit the absorbent, 10, the device may be used, in a measure, as

a sponge by alternately squeezing and releasing its walls, the efiect being to first supply the cloth or cleansing surface With a surplus of fluid, and then to suck it back.

Primarily the device is intended to be used as a Window-cleaning utensil, for Which purpose it.is normally equipped with the distributing, absorbing and applying or cleansing layers, and with the drying member. Removingone, or another, or all of the layers, and swinging the squeegee up against the side of the receptacle, leaves the device available as a sprinkler, etc.

Having thus described my invention and the best manner now known to me in which it may be applied, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A squeegee consisting of a triangular shaped prism having thin, flexible, converging side walls adapted to be compressed by the hand, a series of openings in the meeting edge of said Walls, of such'small size as normally to prevent water leaking through, but-adapted to direct water in a series of fine streams, when said sides are compressed.

2. A device of the character described comprising a' triangular shaped prism having a covered opening through which fluid may be introduced, and having a rounded edge provided with minute perforations, the converging side walls which meet at said rounded edge, being made of thin flexible metal adapted to be squeezed inwardly by hand to expel said fluid through said perforations, and a layer of fabric and absorbent material covering said perforations.

3. A device of the character described comprising a triangular shaped prism having a covered opening through which fluid may be introduced, and having a rounded edge provided with minute perforations, the converging side walls which meet at said rounded edge, being made of thin flexible metal adapted to be squeezed inwardly by hand to expel said fluid through said porforations, a layer of absorbent material covering said perforations, and a squeegee pivoted to the end walls of the device and normally lying flat against one of said side walls out of the way of said rounded end, but adapted to swing outwardly and project beyond said end.

M. E. VAsEN, E. M. VOLz.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

